Nondestructive Evaluation of Historic Hakka Rammed Earth Structures

Ruifeng Liang, Gangarao Hota, Ying Lei, Yanhao Li, Daniel Stanislawski and Yongqiang Jiang
Additional contact information
Ruifeng Liang: Constructed Facilities Center, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA
Gangarao Hota: Constructed Facilities Center, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA
Ying Lei: School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, Fujian, China
Yanhao Li: School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, Fujian, China
Daniel Stanislawski: Constructed Facilities Center, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA
Yongqiang Jiang: School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, Fujian, China

Sustainability, 2013, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-18

Abstract: The in-service Hakka rammed earth buildings, in the Fujian Province of China, are unique in design and performance. Their UNESCO’s inscription as World Heritage sites recognizes their artistic, cultural, social and historic significance. Sponsored by the National Science Foundation of the United States, the authors have examined the engineering values of these buildings in terms of comfortable living at low energy consumption, sustainability and durability. The objective of this study was to better understand the thermo-mechanical and aging responses of Hakka earth buildings under thermal and earthquake loads through nondestructive field evaluation, including full-scale roof truss and floor testing, laboratory testing of field samples and finite element modeling. This paper presents our observations and findings from the field nondestructive evaluations with emphasis on the integrity of the rammed earth outer walls and inner wood structures, as well as the thermal comfort of living in these buildings, while a second paper presents the results from the material characterization of field samples and the structural responses of a representative building under earthquake induced loads through finite element analysis.

Keywords: Hakka Tulou; rammed earth; earth structures; load test; thermal comfort; NDE; nondestructive evaluation; ultrasonic; rebound hammer; Infrared thermography (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/5/1/298/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/5/1/298/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:5:y:2013:i:1:p:298-315:d:23003

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().